1997 – 2017 : An Indian IT industry veteran’s nostalgia

[ Wordcon – Platform for Indian Freelancers received this work from a veteran who chose not to be identified. ]

“In 1997, I was in Bangalore – a freshly minted B.Tech. At that time, the word was “software”. Later, it became IT. I started as a coder, then I became a TL, then Manager. Baas. Everybody (almost) went to the industry to become a Manager. There was no coding except writing text codes like ASAP, EOB, SOB, SLA, TAT and so on.

I was fortunate to have been a multiple-time return passenger of the picture of the Bangalore-Frankfurt-San Francisco shuttle below in these twenty years.

I also became what a colleague of mine told: “3 BHK, Wagon R, 2 private school kids, 2 credit cards” man in Bangalore. By 2015, I had had many health problems and did not find much interest in my work. I used to drag myself to office, navigating traffic and pollution – air and public transit- both third class to deliver mandated first class work, simply for paying my EMIs. The motivation was very low.

In the winter of 2016, I was “guillotined”. I was an aristocrat (high cost and long tenure) to the company and the judgment was swift and sure. Almost instantaneous with not minutes for self-defense.

Image Courtesy – http://vadakkus.com (as advised by author)

Presently, I and my wife run a catering service and although our net worth is much lower now; our life worth appears to be higher. Strange.

The picture below is a hilarious remembrance and joke on something which none as ever seen and will ever see – General Public – a pure abstraction and this is the safest target of all jokes.

Hence, when I was a regular passenger of the shuttle I mentioned earlier, “general public” (perhaps) used to think what our life was (glamour and Photoshop added)

This is a catharsis for me – a veteran, in the corporate graveyard, who can neither fight with robots, artificial intelligence, cutting-edge codes and immigration law, geo-political reconfiguration of the world.